How are you? Where are you?

That'll do. After almost 16,000km and 13 months on the road we have arrived home in the Hutt Valley of New Zealand. We arrived in Wellington Harbour on a beautiful day and formed a peloton of friends and family to ride 30km to Baden's sister's house in Upper Hutt to signal the end of our journey. It has been a weird ol' month since we've been back. Baden really misses the cycle touring lifestyle while Shelley's enjoying being inside again. Thanks for listening to our series of podcasts. They've been fun to make. We have loved recording our memories in this form and hopefully you have enjoyed them too. Watch this space for future podcast projects and we will follow this in a couple of weeks in a How Are You? Where Are You? podcast bonus edition where we review the best and worst of the gear we took on the trip.

We’re almost a stone’s throw away from home in this week’s How Are You? Where Are You? podcast. A lot of road has been traveled between Christchurch and the top of the South Island and we’ve been blessed to meet some brilliant people as well as enjoying outstanding autumn weather. We thought we had left all the beautiful scenery behind when we left the West Coast but the mainland has continued to delight especially when riding the lonely Rainbow Track through the country’s biggest farm. The weather tried to spoil the party that day but like what has happened so many times on this journey, the following day’s bright and brilliant sun erased any memories of struggle 24 hours earlier. Two of the most moving things to happen to us since we arrived back in the homeland occurred on this final leg. One was a visit to Baden's old stomping ground of Christchurch to see all the positivity to arise from the trauma of a devastating earthquake in 2011. The other was a visit to the Te Awhina Marae, the Maori meeting house in Motueka where we were privileged to be formally welcomed on but also to hear cycling comrade Nick sing. Peanut butter is the fuel that has kept our wheels turning since we arrived in New Zealand so we went to inspect the Pic’s factory in Stoke for any performance-enhancing qualities. Oh and something shat on Baden’s face. Photos to match this podcast can be found on our website at howareyouwhereareyou.com

The West Coast of New Zealand's South Island covers the distance between the two major cities in the North Island, Wellington and Auckland, but this part of the country only has 33,000 thousand residents and bugger all cell phone coverage. This week's How Are You? Where Are You? podcast follows our journey up the coast and introduces some of the people we met along the way. All of them outstanding citizens. This trip home is blowing any stereotypes we had about the people of this land out of the water. We have ridden into big walls of kindness, laughter, wisdom and friendship. We visit some Greenstone carvers, glacier guides, a gold miner, a fisher and do our best to give some sort of verbal justice to the magical scenery, all while coming under attack by the wildlife in Arthur's Pass National Park. Photos to match this podcast can be found at howareyouwhereareyou.com

Like the hopeful miners of the 1860s New Zealand Gold Rush, we too struck the precious metal while cycling through central Otago. In this 40th episode of the How Are You? Where Are You podcast we follow in the footsteps, or even the cycle tracks, of the kiwi pioneers along the mighty Clutha Mata-Au River where we find signs of the bygone days. What the hills surrounding the Clutha lack in altitude, they make up for in stature. They hem you in as you ride down their valleys. Baden hones his sheep farming skills in a visit to a high country sheep farm and enters a heated discussion with Farmer Jack. The week of cycling ends over a bottle of central Otago Pinot Noir while relaxing at the Cardrona Hotel, one of the country’s most iconic pubs. We reunite with cycling comrade Nick who decided to cross the Crown Range with us to be hooked up with nice food and good times. Photos to match this podcast can be found at howareyouwhereareyou.com Music Credit: Southern Man by Denis Henderson

We became members of a cycle touring gang in this week's How Are You? Where Are You? podcast. As we headed into the remote Catlins region of southern New Zealand we were joined by a couple of good buggers from the States. Brian and Nick taught us a great deal and we had a brilliant time riding through some of the most stunning landscapes these isles have to offer. Laughs and cheese rolls were shared on the journey and Nick's mechanical nous came to the fore when Baden's bike Fausto suffered his most catastrophic failure of the trip. A gallant attempt to resuscitate him an in impromptu ER in a woolshed was in vain, leaving the pair stranded in the wilderness until a kind Russian family came to the rescue. There were some giant hugs handed out in Balclutha when we went our separate ways. The Americans drawn by the city lights of cosmopolitan Dunedin while the local kiwis sniffed the smell of moonshine in the Hokonui Hills. Photos to match this podcast can be found at howareyouwhereareyou.com.